Morning Sickness
by Bellerophone
Summary: Riza's pregnant; she and Roy talk about what it means to create a life.  Set several years after the manga. Royai.


The sun had not yet risen and the bedroom was quiet and dark when a black dog raced in, barking frantically, leaped onto the bed, and thrust its muzzle in Roy's face.

He woke up immediately. "What—ahh—" Roy groaned, groping in the dark for the dog. "B—blech—Black Hayate!" He grabbed the dog's snout and clamped its mouth closed. "—Stop it!"

Dog and man regarded each other. Black Hayate whimpered. "…You need to go out?" Roy mumbled reluctantly. Black Hayate whined and wriggled. Roy stared blearily at the dog for a moment more, then collapsed face-first back onto his pillow. "Riza, take care of your dog," he said, his voice muffled.

Black Hayate barked. Roy rolled his head to the side and noticed for the first time the empty half of the bed. "Where's Riza?" he asked Black Hayate. The dog whined and pawed at Roy's chest.

Roy jumped out of bed and fumbled in the dark for a pair of trousers. "Where is she, Hayate?" he demanded. The dog bounded off the bed and out of the room and Roy, struggling with the ties of his trousers, staggered after.

He reached the hallway just in time to see Black Hayate's black tail whip around the corner—not towards the front door, as he had expected, but into the bathroom.

Roy burst in after him. "Riza!"

Riza was kneeling on the bathroom floor, clad in a nightgown, her face pale and shining with sweat in the lamplight. Black Hayate nuzzled her back with his head, just as Riza leaned forward and vomited into the toilet.

"Riza!" Roy cried again. He crossed the bathroom floor in a single stride and knelt next to her. "What's wrong?"

Riza groaned softly, then raised her head and looked from Roy to Black Hayate. "Hayate, did you wake the lieutenant general up?" she said with a small smile. "Bad dog!"

"What's wrong, Riza?" Roy persisted. She shuddered and he stroked her back. "Are you sick?"

Riza laughed weakly, her brow creased and damp. "I'm not sick—although I don't think you should cook anymore."

Roy gave a quick, loud laugh, his eyebrows knit with relief. "Speak for yourself, colonel; at least _I_ didn't burn anything." His face fell as Riza leaned forward and retched again. Black Hayate barked and Roy gripped her shoulders. "Riza…"

"It's okay." Riza dragged the back of her hand across her mouth and looked at him. "Roy…I think I'm pregnant."

Roy's face froze, his dark eyes wide with shock. His hands tightened on Riza's shoulders.

"A baby?"

"Yes," said Riza, as calmly as if she were merely responding to a superior officer's command. "My period is late—and I suppose this nausea is what people refer to as 'morning sickness.'" She raised her eyebrow at Roy's expression. "So surprised? It's actually fairly common, especially for married people—"

Roy laughed quickly and buried his face in Riza's neck.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he muttered, his lips brushing her shoulder.

"I wanted to be alone with it for a few days," she said. "To think about what it means to have a baby." She folded her arms across her stomach and tilted her head to rest against Roy's. "And I was trying to think of a fun way to tell you. This isn't quite what I had in mind, though."

Roy chuckled into Riza's neck. But when he lifted his head his face was lined with misery.

"It seems strange," he said in a light tone. "Not even the Elrics could bring their mother back to life…and now we've created an entirely new life, just us two. It seems..." Riza regarded him with her sharp, grave eyes as he continued, "…Did you figure it out?"

"Figure what out?" she said.

"What it means to have a baby."

She only looked at him, a slight frown on her face.

Roy sat back against the bathroom wall, his eyes on the lamp above them. "I mean, how could people who killed so many Isvalans—so many Ishvalan children—make children themselves? It doesn't seem right that people like us…" He shook his head. "To give me a child—Who could have let that happen?"

Riza's brow contracted. She got up, flushed the toilet and moved to the sink to wash her face.

Roy remained seated on the bathroom floor, his eyes on the curve of her hip through her nightdress. "Are humans really just animals, then? Desperate to reproduce, to proliferate their own genes like any other? …That must be it." He let out a small laugh. "This must be proof that God doesn't exist."

Riza straightened and turned around to survey Roy, her expression customarily grave but her eyebrows raised. He looked back at her, his cheeks slightly flushed, a small, tough grin on his face but his eyes overly bright.

"Roy," she said, and crouched down before him, the faintest of smiles on her face. "I think it's proof that he does."


End file.
